I think it was two weeks ago—is that right? Week before last, there was a retreat that the brothers from Delmarva put on. We went to a Days Inn in eastern Maryland, and it rained quite a bit. I think that is kind of normal.
Ed Miller spoke, and Ed spoke a good word. I think what struck me as much as ever before was that the Lord spoke. He had some specific things to say, but what was received by all the brothers was very big and very broad. It was very interesting to see how the Lord spoke.
We thought it would be an encouragement to the saints to have some testify of what He spoke. Generally, Ed’s text was from the books of Ezra, Nehemiah, and Haggai, which are books of recovery and restoration. Obviously, they were timely then, and I think they are very timely to us now, both personally and corporately as an assembly.
I will read a couple of passages that stood out to me and then let the brothers come, beginning in the book of Ezra, just to set the tone—the background and context.
Ezra 1:1-4
Now in the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, in order to fulfill the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah, the Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia, so that he sent a proclamation throughout all his kingdom, and also put it in writing, saying,
Thus says Cyrus king of Persia, “The Lord, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth, and He has appointed me to build Him a house in Jerusalem, which is in Judah.
Whoever there is among you of all His people, may his God be with him. Let him go up to Jerusalem, which is in Judah, and rebuild the house of the Lord, the God of Israel; He is the God who is in Jerusalem.
And every survivor, at whatever place he may live, let the men of that place support him with silver and gold, with goods and cattle, together with a freewill offering for the house of God, which is in Jerusalem.”
So this was after the Babylonian captivity. There was a call. Jeremiah had been praying, and then Cyrus, king of Persia—we talk about the king being in the Lord’s hands. Here is a real practical example. The heart of the king was in the Lord’s hands to return.
But with so many, they did return—not many. I am sure someone will talk about how many and the size of this work. Discouragement came upon them when they saw how big the work was. When they saw the enemies from without and from within, they were discouraged and wanted to give up.
But in Haggai—if you want to look at Haggai 2, which is toward the end of the Old Testament—I think one thing that struck me is that we often talk about these as being minor prophets. Well, I do not think they are too minor. I think they are quite major.
Haggai 2:3-9
Who is left among you who saw this house in its former glory? And how do you see it now? Does it not seem to you like nothing in comparison?
But now take courage, Zerubbabel, declares the Lord; take courage also, Joshua son of Jehozadak, the high priest; and all you people of the land take courage, declares the Lord, and work; for I am with you, says the Lord of hosts.
As for the promise which I made you when you came out of Egypt, My Spirit is abiding in your midst; do not fear.
For thus says the Lord of hosts, “Once more in a little while, I am going to shake the heavens and the earth, the sea also and the dry land. I will shake all the nations; and they will come with the wealth of all nations, and I will fill this house with glory,” says the Lord of hosts.
“The silver is Mine and the gold is Mine,” declares the Lord of hosts.
“The latter glory of this house will be greater than the former,” says the Lord of hosts, “and in this place I shall give peace,” declares the Lord of hosts.
The latter glory will be greater than the former. And the word that goes with that is, “Do not despise the day of small things.” So maybe we can turn it over for whoever would come and share. It is already 11:15, so do not wait too long.
In the book of Zechariah, beginning in Zechariah 4, there is a vision. Zechariah has a vision for Zerubbabel.
Zechariah 4:6-7
Then he answered and said to me, “This is the word of the Lord to Zerubbabel, saying, ‘Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit,’ says the Lord of hosts.
‘What are you, O great mountain? Before Zerubbabel you will become a plain; and he will bring forth the top stone with shouts of “Grace, grace to it!”’”
As our brother shared this weekend, one thing that became clear is that there are two things that we are doing. We have a physical life here. We have things that we need to do. We have to work, make a living, and do those things. We are building a house for us to live in; we have our own house.
But we are also working on another house, and it is a spiritual house. We are called to work on our spiritual house, or God’s house. There are choices to be made. The issue is: whose house are we going to build?
Are we going to build our house? Are we going to work real hard on that and spend all of our time, energy, and labor building our own house that is going to burn? Or are we working with the Lord and allowing Him to do in our hearts what needs to be done to overcome these mountains?
Now, I do not know today what your particular mountain is. But mountains are obstacles. Obstacles are the things that keep us from building God’s house. They may be different for everybody.
But whatever that mountain is, the Lord is declaring to us today that before Zerubbabel it is a plain. It is flat. That obstacle is removed by the Lord, not by the work that we do.
When we think about it, that top stone He is talking about—the accomplishment of that house that is being built—is grace. Grace. It is God’s grace for us.
So, as we look to spend our energy and our time, the Lord is calling us to give ourselves to His work and allow Him to do the work in us, that His temple might be complete in us.
We are walking around with half-done temples. We are walking around with a foundation. We are saved; the foundation has been built. But we have given up on the work because there is something we cannot seem to overcome, or our family situation is too difficult, or the work situation, or whatever those situations in our lives are that keep us from saying to the Lord, “We want to get back to the work on the house that You are building.”
Ed was such an encouragement to us when he spoke. The messages were very rich. That is what he shared, and that is what I got. Thank you.
I would like to read a verse in Ezra 3:12. There are so many places we could have gone with this. Ed really poured his heart out to us on the story of restoration, and there are so many places we could have said a few things. But this was particularly touching to me.
Ezra 3:12-13
But many of the priests and Levites and heads of fathers’ households, the old men who had seen the first house, wept with a loud voice when the foundation of this house was laid before their eyes; while many shouted aloud for joy.
So that the people could not distinguish the sound of the shout of joy from the sound of the weeping of the people, for the people shouted with a loud shout, and the sound was heard far away.
I think the part that touched me was this: when you consider that some of the old-timers did return, they were probably very young when the former temple was still standing. Of course, they had been away for seventy years, I believe.
Upon their return, you can picture what they came back to. This was a pile of rubble. Everything was virtually standing upon another. As they gazed upon that, you can see that it really rent their hearts to see the condition.
As they began to rebuild, they saw that it was indeed coming together slowly. But they saw that the glory of this temple that was beginning to arise was not what they remembered: the gold, the silver, the exotic woods. They began to see that what they were putting together simply was not as splendid as what was there prior, and it grieved their hearts.
These older fellows, who saw the beauty of Solomon’s original temple, were saying that it just was not going to be the same anymore. It grieved them, and we see that there was much crying, sadness, and lamenting for the days of old and for that marvelous work the Lord had done.
But we know the story. In fact, the temple was completed after a certain amount of time, even though it may not have been what it was. They had only about fifty-two thousand, I think—not anywhere near the number of people that Solomon had working for years. You can imagine all the craftsmen, woodworkers, and metalworkers that he would have had.
But this remnant did what they could as the Lord helped them. The story does not end there. The beauty of it is in Haggai 2:9. This is what John read, and this is what really stuck with me.
Haggai 2:9
“The latter glory of this house will be greater than the former,” says the Lord of hosts, “and in this place I will give peace,” declares the Lord of hosts.
This is a wonderful promise to all of us. Though in the past there may have been something glorious, even in an assembly or in the lives of the saints, what the Lord is looking at here is this present house. And there will also be future glory.
Today we are built with living stones. Back in those days, they had earthen stones, wood, and perishable things that would not last. But today the Lord is putting us together with the imperishable. It is a living temple: our Lord Jesus Christ and His body.
So from God’s perspective, it was a glorious temple being built, little bit at a time, one day at a time. The people despaired of what they saw, but from the Lord’s perspective it was a glorious thing. It is a glorious thing for us.
To me, that was a very great encouragement. As we build, sometimes we can look out upon the landscape and think, “This just is not going to do it. This is not going to make it.” But from the Lord’s perspective, it is going to make it. This is a promise to us: the glory of the latter will be much more than the glory of the former.
I would like to share from Zechariah 4:7:
“What are you, O great mountain? Before Zerubbabel you will become a plain; and he will bring forth the top stone with shouts of ‘Grace, grace to it!’”
I share that mountains and level plains are very different. Indeed, in our lives sometimes we face great mountains. The people there faced great mountains. To build a temple, God told them to go up to the mountains, get wood, and build a temple for the Lord Himself.
Consider how many people Solomon had to build Solomon’s temple. Consider what David had prepared—the material for the temple itself. Now it was fifty thousand people who came back, and God says, “Go to the mountains.” It was a big problem.
But what I get is that even though there are big problems, there is the Lord’s grace. It is grace that finishes it. It is the grace of the Lord that brings that work to the end.
Before I went to the retreat, my wife mentioned that her father in Taiwan had become very sick. She was tens of thousands of miles away, and she could not help him. In that situation, it was a big problem.
As I was at the conference and thinking about it, the theme that came to me was “Amazing Grace.” Sometimes we think that we need grace because we are saved by grace—that is the beginning. But actually, it is grace by which we live, and it is grace that brings us home. He will bring His work to completion.
Good morning. I waited for a couple of people to go first and lay some groundwork because Carol keeps telling me, “Just touch on the things that really spoke to you.” But the entire time spoke to me, so I would really have to rehash everything that was spoken.
One thing that had not been mentioned yet was about this remnant that was called out. There was a call by Cyrus to go rebuild the temple, and not all went. Not all the Jewish people went. Some had their lives too interwoven with Babylonian life—the world, as we would know it today. They saw it more as a burden, as a task, to go rebuild this temple.
But these fifty thousand—this remnant—saw it as an escape. It was an escape. You really have to look at the heart of this remnant that left. This was not the leftover people of Israel. This was not simply what was there. These were those who had a heart, who saw rebuilding the temple as an escape from the world and as the reality of who they were and what this was all about.
I thought of a true story. I do not want to take a whole lot of time, but I think it is significant. I had a young fellow, my cousin, who worked for me in Pennsylvania. He was about eighteen years old, and he had a black Nissan pickup truck in perfect condition.
There was one place on the lower quarter panel of the door where it had a dent. I asked him, “Why did you not get that dent fixed?” Early on, he had told me that his father had saved for years, before he was old enough to drive, to buy him that truck new.
He did not appreciate it. He took the truck out and demolished it. Then he realized what his father had sacrificed to get it for him and what it meant. The truck was totaled. The insurance company said it was not worth fixing, but to him it was worth fixing because it stood for something more than just a vehicle.
So he took the money and added to it to get the truck restored. But in that door he left that dent, because it reminded him of his father’s sacrifice and love.
So this remnant that came out—it was about rebuilding a temple, but it was more than that. It was the Lord’s heart for them. I am sorry—it was a heart of repentance.
That is important to know because when they arrived, the first thing they did was rebuild the altar. The altar is the place where we meet with God.
Ed spoke about that, and it was so powerful. He said that when they came back, they really wanted to get to work building the wall, but the first thing they did was build the altar. The altar is the place where we meet with God.
Not only do we meet with God there, but through sacrifice we remember that we need a substitute. We need something else to take our place. There has to be repentance. There has to be an offering.
This altar was a place where they could remember their substitute. To me, that is Christ. Christ is our substitute. The call goes out to those in Babylon—to this remnant. That is us. We are all called. It is a free gift. We are all to come.
But then He says, “Go back to the temple.” Then we have to start going through the work. We had a word spoken not too long ago that the brothers need to pay attention to the regular, the normal, the everyday.
It says they offered sacrifices morning and night, at the new moon, and through all the different rituals. I do not know all the history in it, but what it indicated was that they endured through normal life.
They built the foundation, but the temple was not built for another fifteen years. The work had stopped. So in that time of normal sacrifices at the altar, they were being prepared, because the character that rebuilds the temple has humility.
It was year after year of the regular, looking at the foundation laid—which for us is Christ. For them, the foundation was laid. I hope I am making sense to you all.
What they were learning was humility. What Ed said was that the rebuilding of the temple does not start at the temple; it starts at the altar. To me, that says that for us, the altar is Christ. That is where God has union with us. It is where we meet with Him.
Any work we do in building this spiritual temple has to start at Christ. If that is missing, there is no rebuilding of the temple.
I get so excited that my mind runs faster than my mouth. I cannot keep up. I get lost and left behind sometimes. But John knows I could not keep quiet on the bus back home. Everybody I met was hearing some part of this.
In the brothers’ meeting, we decided whether or not we would have testimonies from this time on Sunday. I said, “It does not matter. I can pick you off one at a time, or get you all down here together. It is really your choice.” So, for the sake of time, they figured they would let it come out.
What this did for me was to start me looking at the temple: What is the building material? Where is it going? Where did it come from? All these practical questions.
When the foundation was laid, the older men who had seen Solomon’s temple previously said, “In comparison, this seems like nothing.” Ed talked about different commentaries on why some old men wept and why the young men rejoiced.
Solomon’s temple had great foundation stones. They were quarried and put together without sound. It was magnificent. It had inlaid gold. This new foundation was smaller. To look at it, it was nothing in comparison.
But I do not think that is why they were really crying. Solomon asked one thing from God: wisdom. These were men who had been under Solomon. They had to have had some kind of vision imparted to them.
If you read about Solomon’s temple toward the end, where he prayed to God about the temple, look for the things he asked for. He prayed that if sojourners in their land turned toward the temple and prayed in repentance, God would grant their request. God said He would grant it, on the condition that they followed the ordinances and laws of David.
To me, what Solomon prayed was a picture of Christ. What we are getting through Ezra and the rebuilding of this temple is a picture of Christ and the church.
The temple is a representation of God. It is His testimony on the earth. That is what we are, but in a new and living way, in a new covenant through the blood of Christ. We are His temple, being built together.
But this latter glory is that of the New Jerusalem. If you go to Revelation and look at the description of the New Jerusalem, it says there was no temple in it. So where is this temple that is being built?
It is the life that we have together. What it produces creates the New Jerusalem. It is spiritual reality on earth. As you see this rebuilding of the temple, that is what it is speaking of: the latter glory will be greater than the former glory.
There was one other thing. Those old men who were weeping and the young men made one sound. There was one sound, and it could not be distinguished between the laughing and the crying.
To me, that speaks of the body of Christ. Suppose those from the earlier generation who saw Solomon’s temple were weeping because this new temple seemed like nothing—there was no glory there, in their view. The young men, however, saw a new generation and a new revelation. They were building this new temple. God called them to do it, and it was His work.
The young men were energized and rejoicing: “Praise the Lord, the foundation is laid!” But the older people looked at it and said, “It is not like Solomon’s.” Yet together they made one sound.
That is the difference. They could come together for the sake of building the temple. It was not about, “I think Solomon’s was better,” or, “I think this one is better.” It was all about what the Lord called them to. All could be forsaken for the building of the temple.
For us, it is not a physical building. Through Christ, it is a spiritual house, and that is what we enter into by faith. Can we come together and make one sound? Can we make one noise to the Lord, and not grumble?
This is something we carry that is not ours. We are stewards. That is all we are: stewards of this testimony. God, through His wisdom and grace, placed it in our hands through Christ. What do we do with it? We build a house.
That is through the regular, through the daily sacrifices, through coming together and realizing that we need a substitute. It is in that that the building material goes up. When the Lord chooses, New Jerusalem will come. That is what it is built out of. That is the temple.
This was my first time going to the retreat, and it was wonderful. I work in a plant. I run a press, and when I walk into my job, I always have earplugs. When I walk with people, if there is something I want to hear, I take my earplugs out. If I do not, I keep walking.
So I have a problem with messages. If it is something I do not want to hear, I have my earplugs on. But the first time I went to hear Ed Miller speak, it was simple, but it was so clear. My earplugs were off.
The verse from Zechariah kept staying with me:
“Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit,” says the Lord of hosts.
“What are you, O great mountain? Before Zerubbabel you will become a plain.”
I went to the retreat by grace. When I came home, I tried to remember the whole retreat, what the message was, and to get all that message into my heart.
I could tell my wife, “I cannot. He will not. But by the Holy Spirit, we can remove the great mountain.” That is what I learned, and that is what stayed in my head the whole time.
I do not know about you, but I do have problems. I have a lot of great mountains. Even coming to the Friday-night meeting, even sitting down with brothers and sisters, I have trouble opening my mouth and saying what is in my heart.
This is my heart: the time spent at the retreat is beautiful. The time spent in the Friday-night meeting is beautiful. You are beautiful to me.
Just two days ago, we went to the bank to do some financial business. At the bank, I met a wonderful brother from Kenya. There were three of us there, and I do not think you are supposed to talk about religion in an office, but there we were.
We talked about the Lord. It blew my mind. He came from another country, I came from another country, and there we sat at the bank talking about the Lord. I cried. He cried. My wife cried.
The Lord showed me that He is powerful. When I walked out of the bank, I still had goosebumps. I do not know about you, but sometimes when I encounter these things, I get goosebumps. It is so real to me. It is so real.
At the retreat, I had lunch with a brother, Ed Miller’s son-in-law. We were chatting and talking, and they asked me how I knew the Lord. So I started telling my story again.
I talked to him, and I broke down crying as I shared how I met the Lord. When I was done, we turned to pray, and they broke down crying.
I felt so good. I felt so good that the Lord showed me it is okay to cry sometimes, even if you think you are a big man.
The Lord showed me so much goodness and faithfulness. Ed was saying how many thousands of people stopped when they tried to build that temple. How many of us try to walk away? Maybe we all do. But the Lord brings me back.
I cannot. He will not. But by the Holy Spirit, we can. Praise the Lord.
It was a good message. The thing is, it really goes to the mark of what is happening in my life and, I think, in our lives here as well.
A remnant came back to build. They were called out. They came back, made the altar, began meeting with the Lord, and began to build the foundation.
Then something happened: the work stopped. Ed went through four reasons the work stopped. I can only remember two, so perhaps another brother can remember the third and fourth. Maybe those are the ones that really struck me.
The first reason the work stopped was that they had a good reason to stop. The officials told them to stop. The government told them to stop building.
Ed made the connection to the spiritual reasons we stop building. We may have real spiritual reasons for stopping, for not continuing to build. It may sound really good: submitting to authority, or saying, “The Lord has told me,” or whatever reason we give. But we stop because we feel we cannot build; we are not allowed.
The other reason we stop is because we are discouraged. We see conditions, individuals, and things around us that discourage us, and we stop.
Whatever the reasons, the work stopped. I had never seen this before—probably because I am not really a student of the Bible. I just love to meet with the Lord. He speaks, and I go where He speaks. I do not really study. That is just not me.
But I had never seen this before: the conditions did not change. After fifteen years of not building, something happened, and they went back to building.
Ed said, “We need to know what happened,” because the outward conditions did not change. The government was still saying no. The people were still quarreling, grumbling, or whatever the excuses were for not coming together to build. They were building their own houses, doing their own thing.
But something happened, and they came back to build after fifteen years. It was Haggai and Zechariah who had a word from the Lord.
Haggai was the older man, and Zechariah was the younger man. It was neat to see that the Lord spoke through an older man—and, by the way, I am in that camp now—and through a younger man.
They had a word that called the people back, and it registered. They began to build.
The first thing was that it was impossible to build this temple. They did not have what they needed. They had saved up for years for Solomon’s temple—materials, goods, building supplies, and plans. David had prepared everything Solomon needed to build the temple.
Then it took years and thousands of people to build that temple. What did this remnant have to build with? The Lord said, “Go to the mountain and build the temple.” That was it. What did they have? Wood, some stones—wood. It was impossible.
It made the connection to our lives in Christ and why we stop building. Somewhere along the line, we realize it is impossible to live the Christian life. We cannot do it. It is not a matter of just being good. I cannot. There are too many things that just do not make sense.
The word of the Lord came through Zechariah: “Not by might, not by power, but by My Spirit.” The phrase the brothers are saying is, “You cannot.” That part is just true. You cannot. But by My Spirit, you can.
That was the word of the Lord that changed something in their lives and helped them start building again.
The other issue was that the people were building their own houses, and there were problems and issues. What was the word of the Lord for that situation? The Lord Himself could have built that temple for them. He could have simply said, “There it is. Done.”
But He would not build the temple for them. “I cannot. He will not.” The Lord is not going to build the temple. You are going to build the temple. “I cannot. He will not.” But by My Spirit was one part of the answer.
The other word that came through the prophets was this matter of grace. The capstone will be grace—His grace.
They went back to building, and they completed that temple. They finished it. They had the temple. The crying and the weeping—so many feelings, emotions, understandings, and everything—all blended in the fact that God had what He wanted. God was satisfied.
Some of the other brothers also took notes. I saw people writing. My notes are chicken scratch.
The four points were these:
Just quickly, what I came away with was this: throughout the retreat, Ed did not tell us anything new. It was nothing that we had not heard before in my twenty years of coming and going in assembly life. He did not say anything new, and that was good to hear.
The “I can” thing was big to me, because it is important that we come to an end of ourselves. That is what the Lord wants.
If you are weary, tired, discouraged, or if you have quit a thousand times like I have, that is good. Come to an end of yourself.
What I came away with was what the Lord has been saying to me in the last three years of my life: there is hope in Him.
So get weary. Get tired. Get your eyes off the Lord, if that is what it takes for you to come to an end. But come to an end of yourself—your efforts, your striving, your work, your ministry, your whatever. Come to an end of it all and know this.
It is only hopeless when you get to the end of yourself and do not know that He is there. Because He will fill you. He will restore you. He will finish what He started.
When you have come to an end of yourself and quit in any place in your life—relationships, assembly life, work, it does not matter—it is His call that brings you back. He starts that because He has never let go.
He never stopped in those fifteen years. His love for us is relentless.
Basically, one of the things that really hit my heart was when he talked about an old song about the love and Spirit of the Lord. It has been so high, you cannot get over it; so wide, you cannot get around it; so deep, you cannot get under it. The Lord is there waiting for you and trying to save you.
I just wanted to say one little bit about the will of God. I was kind of playing catch-up in the book The Prayer Ministry of the Church when I went, and I thought there were a lot of good parallels between the two.
We pray for the will of God to be done in our lives, and we pray to be shown what His will is. But ultimately, we are there to be used by the Lord, doing it in His Spirit and His power.
The ones who came out of Babylon were called-out ones, called according to purpose to do a work—to rebuild the temple. As has been mentioned, the work stopped. But the Lord’s will, which they were not hearing at the time, was that the work would be completed.
The ones called out were a mixed multitude: old ones and young ones. Zerubbabel, if I am correct, means “born in Babylon,” so he was one of the young ones. But he was given this vision of the Lord’s will and of the work that needed to be done.
What struck me from reading The Prayer Ministry of the Church is that if it is the Lord’s will, if we are touching what the Lord wants, and we are willing to be used by Him, there will be no obstacles.
If it is our will, there is no guarantee that there will not be obstacles. If it is our will that we want our own house, for instance, there can be obstacles, and that is fine. They will not necessarily be removed.
But if it is the Lord’s will—what He wants—and we are seeking it in His power, then all obstacles will be removed.
The first point was Zechariah 4:6:
“Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit,” says the Lord of hosts.
The thought there, for me, along the line of the will of God, was that the carrying out of His will is not by our force. It is not by our strength or valor, but by His Spirit.
Then Zechariah 4:9 says:
“The hands of Zerubbabel have laid the foundation of this house, and his hands will finish it.”
That is the Lord’s Spirit, but it is our hands. As it is His will, and as we touch His will, we can do His work.
The second point was Zechariah 4:7:
“What are you, O great mountain? Before Zerubbabel you will become a plain.”
For me, it was the idea that if we are touching the will of the Lord, any mountains will be removed. Any mountains will become a plain. But that only applies to what we touch of His will. It is not our will. It is not merely what we want.
If we want something in the assembly or something in this life, those mountains may be there and may always be there. The Lord is under no obligation to remove mountains that are in our way. But if we are touching His will and want His will to be done, all mountains will be made plains.
The third point was Zechariah 4:10: “Who has despised the day of small things?” This was along the line of the older men seeing the effort, work, and resources that went into the first temple, and thinking they were lesser because they did not have those resources.
But the glory that would enter that temple, ultimately the Messiah, would be so much greater. We should not look with our own eyes and despise something that looks small. We should see through the eyes of faith the greater One, who is the Lord.
The fourth point was personal cleanness. This was Zechariah 3.
Then he showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the Angel of the Lord, and Satan standing at his right hand to oppose him.
The Lord said to Satan, “The Lord rebuke you, Satan! Indeed, the Lord who has chosen Jerusalem rebuke you! Is this not a brand plucked from the fire?”
Joshua was clothed with filthy garments. Ed said those clothes were not just dirty, but actually covered with filth. They were disgusting.
He stood in those filthy clothes before the Angel, and the Lord said, “Remove the filthy garments from him.” Then He said to him, “See, I have taken your iniquity away from you.”
In this building work, we can touch the Lord’s will, but still have our eyes on the mountains. We can look at ourselves and say, “We are filthy. We are disgusting.” But the Lord who removes mountains, and the Lord who does the work by His Spirit and through our hands, can take our iniquity away.
He does that through the Lord Jesus. He clothes us with clean clothes to do His work as we touch His will.
Why do we not close in prayer? But I challenge everybody to go back and read Haggai. It is two short chapters—the whole book is two short chapters.
What I heard was, “Consider your ways.” Are we distracted with other things? Young or old probably is not chronological. It might be spiritual. It might be where we are.
Haggai 1:2-8
Thus says the Lord of hosts, “This people says, ‘The time has not come, even the time for the house of the Lord to be rebuilt.’”
Then the word of the Lord came by Haggai the prophet, saying, “Is it time for you yourselves to dwell in your paneled houses while this house lies desolate?”
Now therefore, thus says the Lord of hosts, “Consider your ways.
You have sown much, but harvest little; you eat, but there is not enough to be satisfied; you drink, but there is not enough to become drunk; you put on clothing, but no one is warm enough; and he who earns, earns wages to put into a purse with holes.”
Thus says the Lord of hosts, “Consider your ways. Go up to the mountains, bring wood and rebuild the temple, that I may be pleased with it and be glorified,” says the Lord.
I think if we are not satisfied in the Lord’s life and His vocation, we get the fruit of it. No matter whether we are young people or old people, we sow much but harvest little. We eat, but there is not enough to be satisfied. We drink, but there is not enough. We put on clothing, but no one is warm enough. We earn wages only to put them in a purse with holes.
The building material for the temple in the year 2005 is the brothers and sisters. It is our lives. What are we doing with our lives?
This world is out to get us. It is out to consume us with activity, material things, and cares. But the Lord’s call is, “Go up to the mountains, bring wood, and rebuild the temple, that I may be pleased with it and be glorified.”
The other thing that happens to us is that we get discouraged. We have been through a lot here—a whole lot. It is not perfect. We get discouraged. It is not perfect. We have trouble.
But what is the Lord’s word to that? Take courage. Do not be discouraged. Take courage.
Haggai 2:4-5
“But now take courage, Zerubbabel,” declares the Lord, “take courage also, Joshua son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and all you people of the land take courage,” declares the Lord, “and work; for I am with you,” says the Lord of hosts.
“As for the promise which I made you when you came out of Egypt, My Spirit is abiding in your midst; do not fear.”
The earth is shaking. Do not kid yourself. We live in the last of the last days, and things are shaking.
“Once more in a little while, I am going to shake the heavens and the earth, the sea also and the dry land. I will shake all the nations; and they will come with the wealth of all nations, and I will fill this house with glory,” says the Lord of hosts.
“The silver is Mine and the gold is Mine,” declares the Lord of hosts.
“The latter glory of this house will be greater than the former,” says the Lord of hosts, “and in this place I shall give peace,” declares the Lord of hosts.
Lord, we talk about this thing, the temple, the house of God. But Lord, it is all You. It is Your habitation. Might there be a habitation for You? Might there be that place in our hearts?
Not a physical place, Lord. We declare it is not a physical place. It is a spiritual house built with living stones.
Lord, where we are distracted and caught up with this world and its cares, it does not satisfy. Forgive us for thinking it will.
Lord, where we are withdrawn into ourselves because of confrontation and discouragement: grace, grace. God, grant us to take up that grace, to trust You, and to come back in the race and build.
We commit this word to You. We pray that You will not let us lose it or let it go, but that You would call us into the building of this temple.
In Jesus’ name.